


Bury You, And Myself

by JessicatheClassAct



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-29 03:21:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30149982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicatheClassAct/pseuds/JessicatheClassAct
Summary: Piper was the primary Lakewood Slasher, and Audrey helped her. She tries to walk away from responsibility, but Emma knows everything. She doesn't let her get away with it. (series 2 rewrite, multiple perspectives including the killer)
Kudos: 1





	1. What Lies Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is a rewriting of series two, but begins with a short scene at the tail end of series one. It isn’t a mystery. We see the new killer’s actions and some of their thought processes. This is an idea I wish they’d explored seriously instead of backing away from Audrey being the accomplice and going with the only safe option left. Some of it – especially the early chapters – follow series two more closely, and, as I don’t want to write a million words, some scenes that are left out can be assumed to mostly happen in a similar manner, especially if they don’t relate to Emma.  
> This is my first time writing with characters that aren’t mine, and I’m still getting to grips with it. Also, the first chapter has very little mature content, and no death, but that is certain to change as we go on. Much more violence than sex though. This won’t be any kind of heavy romance thing, though there are definitely possibilities for light romance. Some main characters are likely to die as we go on, but that likely won’t be for a while yet.  
> Happy reading! x

****

** Wren Lake: **

****

**_Audrey:_**

**__ **

A blood drop fell from the slice on Audrey’s arm. She reached out a hand to try and catch it, but it hit the velvet material, blending in almost instantly. Noah was by her side, hand on her shoulder but his shaking passed through Audrey and didn’t provide the comfort he normally did. He had the gun. He juggled it in his hands for a moment after Emma passed it to him.

“I got it,” Audrey said, taking it from him.

Brooke was on the chair opposite, looking closer to death than was comfortable. Jake cradled her.

_Huh, Brooke now has the dubious distinction of being the only one to feel both Piper’s and my blade. And she survived._

Jake and Noah had shot barbs at each other about the other being the killer. Because either could have been, to them. But they weren’t. Piper was. And Audrey knew where Piper was.

Emma was in the house now. Audrey watched her in her mind, counting out the beats. Phone call, one minute tops. Piper likes to say she’s patient, that she has a perfect handle on her emotions. Audrey couldn’t argue entirely. Somehow, she’d stood by Piper for over a year and watched her plan this whole bizarre thing that turned her world completely beyond reality, but something told her this is where Piper’s patience would wear thin.

She would call Emma to the lake. She would confront her. But she wouldn’t make it last hours, like she said. If Emma was lucky, it would be a couple of minutes. Oh God, and Maggie was there too.

Emma must have left the house by now. Audrey looked to Jake, and Brooke. They were embracing, Jake whispering gently into Brooke’s ear. Kieran was twitching, never still a moment, head swivelling around them and to the house. To him, the killer was in ever corner of each eye.

_No no, Prince Cardboard, they’re both accounted for._

Audrey could feel herself shaking. Noah bent down. “Hey, are you okay? Are you going into shock?” He put an arm around her, and pushed onto the bench. “It’s okay if you are. I mean, you were seconds away from death. Again. You know? It’s like… it’s okay.”

Audrey almost recoiled at his touch, but forced herself still.

Emma must be at the dock by now. Audrey chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Noah said. Did he know he was stroking her hair, or was that a subconscious part of trying to comfort her?

“Nothing. Just… this is kinda absurd. Pool party when there’s a serial killer ends in bloodshed, what are the headlines going to be?”

“Ahh, you know, the morning after sunrise is always hopeful, the journalist has a change of heart and sees the heroes’ bravery. Maybe Piper will do an exclusive. I’m sure you’ll feature prominently! If, you know, she hadn’t likely been… murdered… but hey, there are always more journalists to write the story!”

He punched her gently on the arm with his free hand. Audrey smiled.

_Yeah. I’m sure I will feature prominently._

Emma could be dead already, if Piper’s patience snapped completely. Or… perhaps she would hold out a while. Perhaps she really would make Emma suffer.

“When does this end, Noah?”

“When the killer is defeated. When the Final Girl bests her.”

“And what happens if the killer kills the Final Girl?”

Noah broke from her, turning to look at her face. “Well… killers don’t really ‘stop’. Not until they’re dead. Or defeated, I mean, they never really ‘die’ in horror movies.”

“But you’re saying it’s them or us. Got it.”

_This has all got so out of hand. Emma… I spent this whole time thinking Emma shouldn’t have become the person she became… What about me? What even is Piper going to do to me when she comes back?_

Audrey’s eyes fell to the gun on the sofa beside her. She didn’t remember how it got there, but it was cold against her hand.

_I can fix this._

_Four months later_

**_ Emma’s Homecoming: _ **

**__ **

_**Emma:**_

**__ **

Brooke was a 7. Noah was a 7. Kieran was a 4. Audrey was off the scale. Jake. Jake was the 10. Honestly, Brooke, Noah, and Kieran were non-factors, though the former two at least had the possibility of offering some levity. They always used to. Kieran was more complicated. He probably wouldn’t want to take a back-seat role.

Emma pulled over a couple of minutes from Kieran’s house, where the ‘Lakewood Six’ were gathering for her welcome home party. She loaded the video and watched it again, for perhaps the twentieth time. Audrey in terror, running for her life. The fake killer did a good job. They made Audrey believe her life was in danger. Emma smiled. Her smile rolled into a giggle, and then a full blown laugh.

_Patience._

She messaged Kieran that she was almost there, put the car into drive, and continued down the lane to Kieran’s house.

She remembered the glass diamond window in his front door, and got that familiar fluttering in her stomach, but this one was wholly different from any she had her past hundred visits to this house. 

_Will they know I’m different? Heck, will they care?_

Kieran opened the door. “Hey, Emma. Welcome back.”

“Hey.” She faltered, and exhaled instead of saying anything else.

_Oh gosh… is he going to kiss me?_

Kieran moved to her, and Emma fought hard not to brace herself in an obvious manner. Instead of going to her lips, he put his arms around her and hugged her. His squeeze was just right.

“What’s taking so long out there?!” Jake shouted from inside the house. The night was freezing, and Emma could feel warmth flowing from the house. Kieran kept holding her.

The first person she saw was Jake, his height and light blue Fred Perry jacket standing out from the drab greys and blacks of the others. She smiled at Jake, her stomach twisting at what she had to do. Once she got through tonight.

“Welcome home, Girl, Interrupted,” Jake said.

Brooke tapped his arm and glared.

“Hey, you can’t get mad at me for that, I don’t even know what that means. Emma called herself that during the whole… you know.”

Audrey slipped into view from behind Jake. Leather jacket, beer bottle in hand, black hair shaved at the sides and with swooping down towards her right eyebrow.

Her eyes locked onto Emma’s.

Emma thought she would collapse. Her legs lost strength, and her stomach almost turned over, spewing the little dinner she’d managed to get down right back. Kieran’s arms swept under her and around her waist, keeping her upright.

“Hey, you alright?” Kieran asked as the others stepped towards her.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Really. Don’t look at me like that, I just…” She pushed away from Kieran, and focussed on Audrey’s chestnut eyes. “I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me. I had some issues. I went away for a while, and now I’m back.” She broke eye contact with Audrey, and looked to the others. “And it would really suck if you guys were acting weird around me.” Her eyes settled on Jake. “That wouldn’t help me.”

“Well we wanna help you, Emma. Anyway we can,” Jake said.

“It’s really good to have you home,” Audrey said.

_If she comes to me for a hug, I swear I might just grab that bottle and shove it down her throat._

Thankfully, Audrey didn’t go for a hug, then or later that night. The party went fine. Emma found herself checking the clock every ten minutes or so, wondering when she’d be able to get Jake alone, but an hour in, it became clear Kieran wasn’t going to let that happen.

_I cannot do this all year._

Kieran was a little fascinating, though. His dad had just died, and that’s always a seismic event, good or bad. It’s bound to stir up a tonne of emotions. And now it’s just him here.

_Maybe that’s why he insisted on doing the party here. To fill the place with life?_

There was a quiet desperation to his regular touch, to the way he probed – very gently – about where she was, romantically speaking. He even asked her to stay around all night while they had an alone moment out the front of Kieran’s house. Thank goodness Noah interrupted before she had to commit to an answer.

“Noah Foster, killer of parties,” he said as Kieran headed inside. Noah dropped the empty bottles he was holding into the bin.

“Well, that’s not the worst thing to be a killer of. Besides, would you be you if you didn’t?” Emma walked past him, squeezing his arm gently.

“It’s your first night back, so I’m going to let that one slide. If…”

Emma turned, and leaned against one of the wooden beams supporting the porch. The porch roof was rotting, white paint chipped and infected flesh below revealed.

“If you come on my podcast. Just a little interview.” He was practically bouncing at the suggestion, his grin showing huge teeth.

“Noah…”

“You’re the only one of the Lakewood Six who hasn’t been on it.”

“Yeah, for a reason. Several, actually.”

“I know, but… you’re the last piece…”

“I’m not a piece, Noah. I’m a person. A person whose life was made a game for six months by those who should have been close to me, who should have had my best interests at heart. I’m not – I just can’t revisit all that right now. I can’t be vulnerable in that way. Especially not with people who only see me as a victim.”

“That’s totally valid. I’m sorry for asking.” Noah turned away back to the bin.

“I listened to your podcast,” Emma said, pushing off the pillar. The cold was settling in her lungs and in her knees, the tights she wore pathetically incapable of keeping the heat in.

“Oh yeah? I figured you would want time away. Especially, given… it being Her podcast. I mean, I reworked it, The Morgue is very much its own thing, but you can’t ever get away from your roots. Anatomy of a Podcast had a wide listenership and avid online fanbase. I guess you can say I ‘cribbed’ it, or whatever, but it’s totally its own thing.”

“I know. I’m proud of what you’ve done with it. I… I need to go.” Emma turned, the cold getting the best of her, and went to head inside.

“’Those’.”

Emma stalled. “Sorry?”

“You said your life was ‘made a game for six months by those who should have been close to me’. That doesn’t make any sense. It was P… shouldn’t that be ‘by someone who should have had my best interests at heart? Her being your half-sister?”

“Yeah, sure, but not just Her. Also Will played games. I was a bet to him. Brooke knew. My mom lied to me repeatedly, my dad…”

Noah bowed his head, and put up a hand. “Right, right, of course. You’re absolutely right, you were Carrie and everyone in your life lined up to pour pig’s blood on you at the prom. You’re right. I’m sorry, you should go inside. You look frozen.”

“You thought I meant Her accomplice?”

Noah looked back at her, a spark in his eye. “Yeah.”

“Do you have any leads with that?”

Noah looked around, and back to the house.

_Does he know?_

There was an open window, so Noah beckoned her around the house. Thankfully the wind was somewhat blocked here, taking the sting out of the air. But Emma still shook.

“I’m now 99%... 95%... about 90% sure She had an accomplice. I checked out some places She was known to frequent while she was in town – the Grindhouse we know about, but she also stayed in a motel, the Crescent Palms, off highway six. I’ve been asking questions, trying to set up interviews. If she had an accomplice, they must have been seen together.”

“Okay, that’s great. Do you want to hear what I know?”

Noah’s mouth had been in stuck in a half smile as he finished talking but dropped in stunned speechlessness. His eyes shifted between her eyes, as though trying to find the joke hidden there. “S-sh-yes, y-you know something? Yes. Of course. Please tell me.”

“She did have an accomplice. 100%. And it’s someone who lived in Lakewood. They reached out to Her. They’re the reason that woman ever came to Lakewood, or knew anything about me and my mom.”

Noah was silent.

“That’s… how did you find that out?” he finally asked.

“I talked to some people, while I was away. It turns out, She reached out to some extended family members in recent years. A couple she was close with.”

“That’s great, Emma, that’s… this could be big. Well done, compadre, you may have cracked the case! Or at least, you know, chipped a significant chunk away that weakens the structural integrity of the whole thing so it can all come tumbling down with just a little more…” he gestured his hands with an imaginary pickaxe, or similar tool.

“Thank you. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Emma heard the front door open, and a black outline move from the house towards their burgundy block of a car.

_Audrey. It’s time._

“That’s good. Let me know if you find anything,” Emma said. “You should head inside.”

“Sure. You coming? You look half frozen.”

“No, I’m okay, I’m not t-that cold. I just need a minute.”

“Okay. Consider a minute given.” Noah did a kind of half-salute, and left her alone. Emma’s hands fumbled in her bag, nearly numb to the point of pain. She finally got the secondary phone she’d prepared for exactly this situation.

She dialled Audrey’s number. Her heart was hammering more than it had in the past four months. Since the dock.

“Hello?” Audrey answered, sounding upbeat but distant. The ID block had worked.

“How was the party?” Emma said.

“Oh no, that’s the Brandon James voice, how terrifying, that must mean you’re the actual killer and not some dumb teen with a voice modulator. Oh, no, wait, you _are_ just a dumb kid.”

“Oh yeah, you see right through me.”

“Not that hard. Now go away. I’m through being messed with.”

“Don’t hang up. I was polite enough to wait until your friends weren’t around.”

Emma could just about make out Audrey in the car. She looked around her surroundings when Emma said that. Emma imagined Audrey’s heartrate beginning to rise, matching her own. Emma stepped back beside a huge birch tree, the house mostly blocked to her left, Audrey’s car just visible in the distance.

“You thought you could get away with murder? Come on, killer. We both know that’s something that always takes its price, one way or another.” Emma bounced from one heel to the other, partly to keep some blood flow and warmth moving through her legs.

“Do you enjoy being a creep?”

“I’m enjoying torturing you. Was this how it was for you? Each time you slip this mask on, this voice, and all this stuff just… comes to the surface? The real you? And that person the others see… that becomes a little less you. Some other you. Some different you. And then, not a you at all? Or were you always the heartless killer you spend all your time pretending you’re not?”

“You don’t know me.”

The phone went dead.

“That is so true.”

Emma breathed the biggest exhale she had in some time, the seizing feeling in her chest lessening. The cold still gripped her though, so she threw the phone into her bag and raced to Kieran’s back door.


	2. The Jake Hurdle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake is heading out somewhere alone, at night, with a can of gasoline. This is Emma's chance to catch him alone.

** Step Two: **

****

**Emma:**

****

Where was Jake headed? Out into the woods, it seemed. Emma followed at a distance, turning her headlights off once Jake turned onto dirt tracks. What was up here? Emma didn’t know this part of town well. After ten minutes of winding through narrow gaps between enormous forests, trees sweeping in the wind and seeming to lean over the road, making the air feel constricted, they came to a clearing. She stopped before the final bend, just being able to make out Jake had stalled through the thinning treeline.

_It’s fine, Emma. There is no killer. You are the ghost this time. Ghosts aren’t afraid._

There was a thin chain link fence that looked on the verge of collapse. Inside stood something that looked like an old caravan, or perhaps a tiny office building. Either way, Emma wasn’t going to set foot inside it. The headlights of Jake’s car shone on a sign that read ‘Wren Lake Estates’.

Jake killed his engine but kept the lights on. Emma was parked fifty feet behind and crept closer. Jake went to the back of his truck and pulled out a bag and what looked like a cannister of gas. He was muttering to himself, indiscernible words, but something about Brooke.

_Is he doing something for Brooke? Wait…_

He headed across the field, towards houses in the distance.

She followed him, as much out of intrigue as part of any plan. There was a group of four houses about five hundred feet away, with a single road in. It had started a decade prior as a new development, but the funding fell through.

_Oh gosh, Jake, what are you doing? This can’t be legal. You’re going to get into… well, I guess I’m not one to talk._

Jake reached the house furthest in, away from the main road far in the distance. He took keys out of his pocket and let himself in.

Emma threw hell to caution and ran after him. She couldn’t let him pour a drop of gasoline.

She reached the house just as a light inside flicked on and pushed the door open. “Jake! Jake, wait.”

Emma was in a small hallway, empty coat rack screwed to a plain grey wall before her. Down the hallway, Jake was stood behind the island in a kitchen. It was a large, open plane room with the island and different coloured tiles the only distinction between the kitchen and living room. Thick dust coated everything, but the place was fully furnished, and otherwise looked perfectly liveable.

“Emma? Wh-what…?” His eyes flashed to the cannister on the worktop. “No, no, I wasn’t… what the hell are you doing here? Did you follow me?”

“Yes. And it’s a good job you did, it looks like you’re about to do something really stupid.”

“I’m not, I’m doing something necessary.”

“What, getting yourself arrested for arson?”

_Stupid play, Emma. This isn’t going to help your cause._

“Seth Branson.”

“This is Seth Branson’s house?” Emma looked around and remembered where they were. “Or Seth Branson put you up to this?” 

“No, I need Seth Branson out of Brooke’s life. She says I’m immature and never put her first. Well, if I can get ten grand, he’s gone.”

“You’re going to pay to have him killed?”

_I might be able to save you a fortune._

“What? No, he’s going to leave town. Voluntarily.”

“You’re buying him off? Does Brooke know about this?”

Jake’s eyes fell. “We’re leaving her out of it. She doesn’t need Branson on her mind all the time.”

“How does burning this house down get you ten grand? Who’s paying you?”

“Emma, I really don’t need you judging me or trying to talk me out of this, okay.”

“I’m not here to talk you out of anything. I’m actually here, unbelievably, to talk you _in_ to something.”

Jake met her eyes. “The Jake is listening.” His mouth curled. “We planning something?”

Emma had had countless sleepless nights the past four months – for multitude of reasons. First, it was Her. The slash across Emma’s stomach She committed, the gunshot from Audrey, the bullet Emma had put into Her head. Then, it was Audrey. In her dreams, Audrey appeared at the lake, immaterial one moment, then seemingly real the next. But she’d got there somehow. Somehow, she knew. Then, it was Jake. Realising he would be the most sympathetic.

“I… I am here to ask for your help.”

“Okay. Wanna take a seat?” Jake indicated the sofa, a dull green made duller by the layers of dust. They were more comfortable than they looked. Emma took the leftmost edge, and Jake the armchair opposite.

“Okay, so, I guess… so this is about Her.”

“Her who?”

“Her. You know. Pi… what happened to us. The person who did this.”

“Oh, Piper. Sure.”

“Yeah. What do you think of the idea that she wasn’t working alone?”

“An accomplice? That’s Noah’s theory, he hasn’t shut up about it since that night.”

“I’m sure he’s right.”

Jake leant forward. “How?”

“The killer was seen – some of the killings, Piper was in a different place when they happened. She couldn’t have killed Rachel. She couldn’t have attacked Will – Will said he went there _with_ her and the killer attacked both of them.”

“Okay. So who is it?”

“What did Audrey say, when she left you guys?”

Jake’s eyebrows raised with confusion. “Audrey? When she left us where?”

“At the party, the night… the night at Wren lake, when the killer was unmasked. Audrey was near the pool with you guys, and she left. What did she say to you all?”

“Audrey? Emma, Audrey’s not Piper’s accomplice.” Jake laughed and sat back. His legs were open wide.

“Jake, what did she say?”

“I don’t know. I was focussing on Brooke. She got locked in a damn freezer! I didn’t care about Audrey. She just…” He put his hands in the air, then rested them on the arms of his chair. “She just said she needed to go check something out, and she’d be right back.”

“Right. Did you know where I was?”

“That you were at the dock, with your mom and Piper? No. I thought you were in the house.”

“Right. Because I was in the house. And then the killer called me, and told me to go to the docks. I didn’t tell anyone that. How did Audrey know to go there?”

Jake considered a moment, his eyes trained on Emma, mouth open slightly in confusion and disbelief. “Emma, come on, Audrey? She didn’t even know Piper.”

“She did. They’d been exchanging letters. Audrey wrote Her. She was a fan of the Anatomy of a Crime podcast and reached out. Audrey told Her everything. Audrey is the _reason_ that woman ever came to Lakewood. Or knew anything about my mom and me.”

“Emma, that’s crazy, Audrey’s one of your oldest friends. She was with us at the bowling alley… at Brooke’s. She… she wouldn’t have let Brooke die in the freezer like that.”

“Jake, please. I know. I went through all this as well when I realised. But Jake, she attacked Will. She’s the reason your best friend is dead. Nina, Tyler, all of them. Brooke could have died because of what they did.”

“That was Piper!”

“It was both of them. Together. Why did Audrey survive when the killer supposedly had her alone at the party? Just a graze on her arm.” Emma scoffed. “They didn’t even try to make that very convincing, but we fell for it anyway.”

Jake threw his hands up, then stood. He paced. “Emma, that’s… I don’t know what someone told you at that psyche place, but I think they were being a little disingenuous.”

Emma raised an eyebrow.

“What? It’s Brooke’s word of the month.”

“Jake, look.” Emma rested her bag – a small blue faux-leather one, Chanel style but from the market stall at the mall in Morgansville, where she spent her time away. She reached inside and pulled out her phone. The cold metal of the Smith & Wesson 9mm grazed her fingers as she did so. She loaded the video, pressed play, and pushed the phone to Jake.

His hands were trembling when he took it.

_I haven’t seen Jake this shaken in a long time – even after he got stabbed. I guess he’s not been dealing with it all so well?_

Emma watched his face the entire time, fingers gently resting on the metal grip.

Once the voices died, Jake stared at the screen a few moments longer. His hand was gripping the back of his neck, bicep seeming the size of Emma’s head.

“Damn… Audrey really went all _High Tension_.” Jake handed the phone back to Emma. His eyes were downcast, head too heavy. He slumped into the chair and took a heavy breath.

_Hmm… none of the anger I expected._

“So what do you want?” Jake looked around the model house, “why’d you follow me out here to show me that? Why not go to the police?”

“You know why not the police. I came here… I came here because I need you. It can’t be the others, it has to be you. You and me.”

Jake sat forward. The soft light from the area before the front door hit his eye, giving the image of his usual cockiness, but his jaw was tight. “You said you need my help. What are you going to do?”

Emma gripped the gun tighter. Her shoulders shook.

_Time to go all in. Come on, Jake. Buy in with me._


End file.
